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Dwarf Fortress is a simulation game that puts you in charge of a dwarven colonial expedition. You’ll not only need to feed and shelter your dwarves, but also build a sustainable economy and strong defenses to protect against invaders.

While there are many games that draw inspiration from DF, none bring the same level of complexity, for better and for worse. Things that most games would gloss over or simplify, like temperature or water physics, are handled in a more realistic way. All of these small details are relatively unimportant on their own, but the interaction between them is what leads to so many unique moments. For example, cats cleaning their fur and drinks being spilled are two mechanics that most sim games wouldn’t include because they are mundane and don’t add much. Yet in DF, these both happen, which can lead to a cat dying of alcohol poisoning if they spend too much time in a crowded tavern. It’s not a game-changing system, but it creates interesting events and stories, which is what DF is all about.

Managing your colony is the core gameplay loop and what you will spend the majority of your time doing. You designate areas to mine, buildings to construct, and items to produce. Your primary concern is survival. It’s not particularly difficult to subsist, but thriving is your true goal and where most of your fun will come from. You could simply dig underground and wall your colony off from the outside world, surviving off underground farming for eternity, but that’s boring. Instead, you might try to tame a wild jaguar and domesticate the species for use as war cats. Or maybe you’d like to set up a gladiator arena where you pit captured enemies against your strongest soldiers. You can even become a hub of culture with a huge library and tavern, attracting visitors from far and wide. The possibilities are nearly endless, making it an amazingly varied and replayable game.

This is the dark side of DF. It’s unrefined, clunky, and will inevitably suffer from performance issues. The steam release fixed many of the UI and usability issues, but it still needs a lot of work to be on par with the industry standard.

Visually, the steam release looks decent. Compared to the old graphics, it’s an insane upgrade, but it can’t compete with more modern titles. The sprites look amazing on their own, but as a whole, the game still suffers from issues with readability. That being said, the new graphics have an excellent art style and add a lot of life to an otherwise text-based game.

Instead of a persistent soundtrack, DF alternates between ambient sound effects that give a nice atmosphere, and traditional music tracks. It's a bit of an odd choice, but it's certainly better than the silence the free version has.

The most disappointing problem is performance. Eventually, your fortress will become so big that the game can’t handle all the different systems running at once. This results in persistent FPS drops that slowly make the game unplayable. Thankfully, the ride up until that point is magnificent and there are certain techniques that can help mitigate the problem (like keeping a low colony population).

Typically, I don’t factor future content into my reviews because I’m focusing on the product you are buying today, not on what it could eventually become. This is a rare exception because it has been receiving constant updates for over a decade and shows no signs of stopping. Steam Workshop support has been added, enabling the already strong modding community to grow even more.

As for official content, the developers themselves consider the game roughly half-finished in terms of planned features and mechanics. No one knows what it will be like ten years from now, but it’s clear that it will certainly be improved from its current state.

It’s difficult to review a game that has been in development for twenty years without inadvertently glossing over some major aspects of it. It’s best described as a colony simulator, but that doesn’t do justice to the sheer number of elements that can come into play during the game. At times, it’s an absurdly complicated game, but that’s all part of the fun. It won’t click for everyone, but I would still recommend this game to anyone who enjoys colony sims. You are almost guaranteed to lose your first ten colonies in embarrassing fashion, and it’ll be a blast.

Noticeable performance issues running on: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, 16 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 3070

[quote] [url=https://steamoss.com/steamstore/curator/36214917/]Follow our Curator Page, MMM Reviews, for more in-depth reviews and recommendations[/url] [/quote] [i]Dwarf Fortress[/i] is a simulation game that puts you in charge of a dwarven colonial expedition. You’ll not only need to feed and shelter your dwarves, but also build a sustainable economy and strong defenses to protect against invaders. [h2]Gameplay[/h2] While there are many games that draw inspiration from [i]DF[/i], none bring the same level of complexity, for better and for worse. Things that most games would gloss over or simplify, like temperature or water physics, are handled in a more realistic way. All of these small details are relatively unimportant on their own, but the interaction between them is what leads to so many unique moments. For example, cats cleaning their fur and drinks being spilled are two mechanics that most sim games wouldn’t include because they are mundane and don’t add much. Yet in [i]DF[/i], these both happen, which can lead to a cat dying of alcohol poisoning if they spend too much time in a crowded tavern. It’s not a game-changing system, but it creates interesting events and stories, which is what [i]DF[/i] is all about. Managing your colony is the core gameplay loop and what you will spend the majority of your time doing. You designate areas to mine, buildings to construct, and items to produce. Your primary concern is survival. It’s not particularly difficult to subsist, but thriving is your true goal and where most of your fun will come from. You could simply dig underground and wall your colony off from the outside world, surviving off underground farming for eternity, but that’s boring. Instead, you might try to tame a wild jaguar and domesticate the species for use as war cats. Or maybe you’d like to set up a gladiator arena where you pit captured enemies against your strongest soldiers. You can even become a hub of culture with a huge library and tavern, attracting visitors from far and wide. The possibilities are nearly endless, making it an amazingly varied and replayable game. [h2]Presentation[/h2] This is the dark side of [i]DF[/i]. It’s unrefined, clunky, and will inevitably suffer from performance issues. The steam release fixed many of the UI and usability issues, but it still needs a lot of work to be on par with the industry standard. Visually, the steam release looks decent. Compared to the old graphics, it’s an insane upgrade, but it can’t compete with more modern titles. The sprites look amazing on their own, but as a whole, the game still suffers from issues with readability. That being said, the new graphics have an excellent art style and add a lot of life to an otherwise text-based game. Instead of a persistent soundtrack, [i]DF[/i] alternates between ambient sound effects that give a nice atmosphere, and traditional music tracks. It's a bit of an odd choice, but it's certainly better than the silence the free version has. The most disappointing problem is performance. Eventually, your fortress will become so big that the game can’t handle all the different systems running at once. This results in persistent FPS drops that slowly make the game unplayable. Thankfully, the ride up until that point is magnificent and there are certain techniques that can help mitigate the problem (like keeping a low colony population). [h2]Future Content[/h2] Typically, I don’t factor future content into my reviews because I’m focusing on the product you are buying today, not on what it could eventually become. This is a rare exception because it has been receiving constant updates for over a decade and shows no signs of stopping. Steam Workshop support has been added, enabling the already strong modding community to grow even more. As for official content, the developers themselves consider the game roughly half-finished in terms of planned features and mechanics. No one knows what it will be like ten years from now, but it’s clear that it will certainly be improved from its current state. [h2]Verdict[/h2] It’s difficult to review a game that has been in development for twenty years without inadvertently glossing over some major aspects of it. It’s best described as a colony simulator, but that doesn’t do justice to the sheer number of elements that can come into play during the game. At times, it’s an absurdly complicated game, but that’s all part of the fun. It won’t click for everyone, but I would still recommend this game to anyone who enjoys colony sims. You are almost guaranteed to lose your first ten colonies in embarrassing fashion, and it’ll be a blast. [h2]10/10[/h2] [quote] Noticeable performance issues running on: [b]AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, 16 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 3070[/b] [/quote]